Optical Disk Drive with Protection Design Against Broken Disk

ABSTRACT

An optical disk drive with a protection design against a broken disk comprises the following devices of: a chassis; an upper cover mounted above the chassis; a tray mounted between the chassis and the upper cover for supporting an optical disk; a faceplate mounted on the front end of the upper cover and having a first inclined plane; a door mounted on the front end of the tray and having a second inclined plane with a gap opposite to the first inclined plane for forming an inclined directed channel between the faceplate and the door.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an optical disk drive, and moreparticularly to an optical disk drive capable of preventing the brokendisk from flying to the outside by forming an inclined directed channelbetween the faceplate and the door of the optical disk drive or mountinga double-layered retaining plate behind the door to effectively decreasethe impact force from the broken disk for protecting the consumer frombeing injured by the broken disk that damages the faceplate and flies tothe outside of the optical disk drive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advance of electronic-mechanical related technologies consequentlyresults in swift improvement in the peripheral accessories, such as harddisk drives, optical disk drives, scanning machines, and printingmachines. As for the optical disk drive, a commercial optical disk is aninevitable storage medium at present since it is cheap and capable ofstoring up to several GBs of music or image data for a long time. The BD(Blu-ray Disc) of the new generation even has a storage capacity ofseveral tens of GBs such that the optical disk drive plays an even moreimportant role in data storage.

For the purpose of further improving the data access rate of the opticaldisk drive, the optical disk drive of new generation generally hashigher rotation speed so as to shorten the reading/writing time for thedata. For instance, the optical disk of the 20X DVD (Digital VersatileDisk) rotates 10000 RPM (Revolutions per minute). Under such high speed,the centrifugal force suffered by the optical disk during the rotationof the optical disk is relatively large, resulting in the easy breakingof the optical disk that rotates in high speed. Note that, the opticaldisk is mainly made of plastic material, which is natively fragile.Therefore, the cracks occur easily on the supported central portion ofthe optical disk during the high-speed rotation of the optical disk inthe optical disk drive, causing the burst of the optical disk. Inaddition, deficiencies, such as bubbles on the surface, uneven coatingon the surface, wrap of the optical disk, eccentric disk, and so forth,may also occur during the manufacture of the optical disk. The imperfectoptical disk has a higher probability of occurring breaking during itshigh-speed rotation and its broken pieces cause larger impact force.

Please refer to FIG. 1, a conventional optical disk drive with aprotection design against a broken disk is shown. The tray 10 of theoptical disk drive is retractable upon pressing of the on/off button ofthe optical disk drive 1 to allow the consumer to place or take out theoptical disk. After putting the optical disk on the upper surface of thetray 10, the consumer can press the on/off button again to retract thetray 10 into the optical disk drive 1. In addition, a door 100 ismounted on the front end of the tray 10. When the tray 10 is retractedinto the optical disk drive 1, the door 100 is roughly aligned with thefaceplate 12 of the optical disk drive 1. It is worthy to note that thedoor 100 and the faceplate 12 are both made of plastic material.Therefore, when the breaking of the optical disk occurs, the flyingbroken disk may hit and damage the door 100 and the faceplate 12.Especially, under the influence of centrifugation created by thehigh-speed rotation, the flying force of the broken disk is considerablylarge so it may destroy the structure of the door 100 and the faceplate12 and fly to the outside of the optical disk drive 1, causing injury tothe consumer.

Please refer to FIG. 1, for the purpose of shielding the broken disk, abended part 140 is formed on the front end of a conventional iron uppercover 14 to prevent the broken disk from hitting the faceplate 12 andthe door 100 directly and perpendicularly. The iron upper cover 14 isable to resist the broken disk that have larger impact force since theiron upper cover 14 has a higher strength.

However, it is worthy to mention that the iron upper cover 14 is made ofrigid material so it has a limited ability to retard the flying of thebroken disk. In addition, after hitting the bended part 140, the brokendisk will be rebounded therefrom to hit and damage other componentsinside the optical disk drive 1. In addition, a gap S with a value about1.0 cm inevitably exists between the tray 10 and the bended part 140 ofthe iron upper cover 14 for preventing the bended part 140 fromhindering the optical disk when the tray 10 moves into or out of theoptical disk drive 1. However, the smaller pieces of the broken disk maytherefore pass through the gap S and destroy the structure of the door100 and the faceplate 12 in such a manner that the pieces flies to theoutside of the optical disk drive 1 after deforming the faceplate 12.

Please refer to FIG. 2, an optical disk drive with another conventionalprotection design against broken disk is shown. Instead of having abended part 140 on the front end of the iron upper cover 14, the designshown in FIG. 2 provides an inclined retaining block 16 on the insidesurface of the faceplate 12 to shield the broken disk. The inclinedretaining block 16 provides better effect on buffering the impact forcefrom the broken disk since it is made of plastic material or other softmaterial. In addition, the impact direction of the broken disk can bechanged by the inclined surface of the inclined retaining block 16 insuch a manner that the broken disk is scattered to the tray 10, thefaceplate 12 and door 100 along the inclined surface of the inclinedretaining block 16 as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 2. However, asdescribed above, it is worthy to note that a gap S with a value about1.0 cm still inevitably exists between the tray 10 and the inclinedretaining block 16 to prevent the inclined retaining block 16 fromhindering the optical disk and the tray 10 from moving into or out ofthe optical disk drive 1. However, the larger piece of the broken diskmay pass through the gap S and may hit or destroy the structures of thedoor 100 and the faceplate 12 in such a manner that the piece even fliesto the outside of the optical disk drive 1. Therefore, it is animportant task in developing and designing the high-speed optical diskdrive to provide a safer design to prevent the broken disk from flyingto the outside of the optical disk drive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an optical disk drive with a protectiondesign against a broken disk. The optical disk drive mainly comprises achassis; an upper cover mounted above the chassis; a tray mountedbetween the chassis and the upper cover for supporting an optical disk;a faceplate having a first inclined plane, and mounted on a front end ofthe upper cover; and a door mounted on a front end of the tray andhaving a second inclined plane with a gap opposite to the first inclinedplane for forming an inclined directed channel between the faceplate andthe door.

In one preferred embodiment, the gap has a value from 1.0 to 1.4 cm.Moreover, the faceplate further comprises a first vertical surfaceconnected with an upper edge of the first inclined plane, and the doorcomprises a second vertical surface opposite to the first verticalsurface and connected with an upper edge of the second inclined plane.

In one preferred embodiment, a bended part is formed on a front end ofthe upper cover, and a space is formed between the bended part and thefaceplate. In addition, the optical disk drive further comprises a firstretaining plate located in the space between the bended part and thefaceplate. The door further comprises a horizontal surface connected toa lower edge of the second inclined plane, and wherein a horizontalchannel is formed between a lower surface of the first retaining plateand the horizontal surface to communicate with the inclined directedchannel. The horizontal channel has a height from 1.0 cm to 1.4 cm. Theoptical disk drive further comprises a second retaining plate locatedbehind the first retaining plate and the bended part, wherein the firstretaining plate and the second retaining plate are connected to eachother and integrally formed to form a double-layered retainingstructure.

In another preferred embodiment, the optical disk drive of the presentinvention mainly comprises a chassis; an upper cover mounted above thechassis, and having a bended part on a front end thereof, a tray mountedbetween the chassis and the upper cover for supporting an optical disk;a faceplate mounted on the front end of the upper cover, wherein thebended part is located behind the faceplate and a space is formedbetween the bended part and the faceplate; a door mounted on a front endof the tray; and a double-layered retaining plate having a firstretaining plate and a second retaining plate located respectively onboth front and rear sides of the bended part. The first retaining plateis located in the space between the bended part and the faceplate. Thesecond retaining plate is located on the read side of the bended part,and the second retaining plate and the first retaining plate areintegrally formed to connect to each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an optical disk drive with a conventional protection designagainst a broken disk;

FIG. 2 shows an optical disk drive with another conventional protectiondesign against a broken disk;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical disk drive with aprotection design against a broken disk in accordance with a firstpreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical disk drive with aprotection design against a broken disk in accordance with a secondpreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical disk drive with aprotection design against a broken disk in accordance with a thirdpreferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 shows the related structure of a double-layered retaining plateviewed from the top of the optical disk drive.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Please refer to FIG. 3, a cross-sectional view of an optical disk drivewith a protection design against a broken disk in accordance with afirst preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. As can beseen from this figure, an optical disk drive 2 mainly comprises achassis 20, an upper cover 21, a tray 22, a faceplate 23, and a door 24.The chassis 20 is designed for holding a traverse module of the opticaldisk drive, which has a spindle motor to rotate an optical disk 25 and aread/write head for reading data from or writing data into the opticaldisk. The aforementioned upper cover 21 is mounted above the chassis 20for shielding and protecting the components inside the optical diskdrive 2. The tray 22 is mounted between the chassis 20 and the uppercover 21, and located above the traverse module for supporting theoptical disk 25.

The faceplate 23 is mounted on the front end of the upper cover 21 andit has a first inclined plane 23 a and a first vertical surface 23 b.The first vertical surface 23 b is connected with the upper edge of thefirst inclined plane 23 a. The door 24 is mounted on the front end ofthe tray 22, and it has a second inclined plane 24 a, a second verticalsurface 24 b, and a horizontal surface 24 c. The second inclined plane24 a of the door 24 is located oppositely to the first inclined plane 23a of the faceplate 23 in such a manner that a gap d is formedtherebetween thereby forming an inclined directed channel 26 between thefaceplate 23 and the door 24. The second vertical surface 24 b of thedoor 24 is connected with the upper edge of the second inclined plane 24a and it is located oppositely to the first vertical surface 23 b of thefaceplate 23. The horizontal surface 24 c of the door 24 is connected tothe lower edge of the second inclined plane 24 a. In one preferredembodiment, the gap d formed between the second inclined plane 24 a andthe first inclined plane 23 a has a value from 1.0 cm to 1.4 cm.

As described above, if the optical disk 25 breaks during its high-speedrotation, the broken disk may hit and damage the faceplate 23 or thedoor 24 directly, or it may hit the door 24 directly along the gapbetween the faceplate 23 and the door 24 or even fly to the outside bypiercing through the door 24. However, as the optical disk device of thepresent invention shown in FIG. 3, an inclined directed channel 26 isformed between the faceplate 23 and the door 24. Therefore, when thehigh-speed broken disk flies into the gap d between the faceplate 23 andthe door 24, it will be guided by the second inclined plane 24 a of thedoor 24 to go up along the inclined directed channel 26 so as to preventthe high-speed broken disk from hitting the surface of the door 24perpendicularly. The inclined directed channel 26 is capable ofdispersing the impact force from the broken disk and retarding its speedso the broken disk that losses the kinetic energy will be retained inthe inclined directed channel 26 to such an extent as not to deform ordamage the door 24, thereby further preventing the broken disk frompiercing through the door 24 directly and from flying to the outside.

Please refer to FIG. 4, a cross-sectional view of an optical disk drivewith a protection design against a broken disk in accordance with asecond preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. Asdescribed above, the optical disk drive 2 mainly comprises a chassis 20,an upper cover 21, a tray 22, a faceplate 23, and a door 24. And, a gapd is formed between a first inclined plane 23 a of the faceplate 23 anda second inclined plane 24 a of the door 24 for forming an inclineddirected channel 26 between the faceplate 23 and the door 24. Theabove-mentioned gap d has a value from 1.0 cm to 1.4 cm. Therefore, whenthe broken disk flies toward the gap d between the faceplate 23 and thedoor 24, it will be guided by the second inclined plane 24 a of the door24 to go up along the inclined directed channel 26 and jammed in theinclined directed channel 26.

It is worthy to note that in the second preferred embodiment, a bendedpart 21 a bending toward the upper surface of the tray 22 is formed onthe front end of the upper cover 21, wherein a space is further formedbetween the bended part 21 a and the faceplate 23. The upper cover 21can be made of iron so the bended part 21 a has a larger strength toshield off the flying broken disk effectively and to prevent the brokendisk from hitting the faceplate 23 and the door 24 directly.

However, as described above, the upper cover 21 is made of rigidmaterial so it provides limited ability to retard the flying brokendisk. Therefore, in order to prevent the broken disk that has hit thebended part 21 a from rebounding to hit the components inside theoptical disk drive 2 again, a double-layered retaining plate 27 can befurther mounted on the chassis 20 in accordance with this preferredembodiment. This double-layered retaining plate 27 has a first retainingplate 27 a and a second retaining plate 27 b, which are integrallyformed and connected to each other, wherein the first retaining plate 27a is exactly located in the space formed between the bended part 21 aand the faceplate 23, and the second retaining plate 27 b is locatedbehind the first retaining plate 27 a and the bended part 21 a. In otherwords, the bended part 21 a of the upper cover 21 is located exactlybetween the first retaining plate 27 a and the second retaining plate 27b.

The double-layered retaining plate 27 can be made of soft material suchas plastics, hence when the broken disk hits the second retaining plate27 b, the second retaining plate 27 b can considerably decrease theimpact force from the broken disk to avoid the rebounded broken diskfrom damaging the components inside the optical disk drive 2.Furthermore, even if the broken disk has such excessively large impactforce to an extent as to pierce through or damage the second retainingplate 27 b, the broken disk that pierces through the second retainingplate 27 b will still be retained by the bended part 21 a since thebended part 21 a of the upper cover 21 is located in front of the secondretaining plate 27 b.

In addition, if the broken disk flies along the space under the secondretaining plate 27 b, the broken disk will be retained by the firstretaining plate 27 a, which is located more inside than the faceplate23, such that the faceplate 23 is protected from being hit directly bythe broken disk. In other words, even if the broken disk proceeds alongthe space under the second retaining plate 27 b and the bended part 21a, the first retaining plate 27 a still can decrease the impact force ofthe broken disk so as to prevent the broken disk from directly hittingand damaging the faceplate 23.

As shown in the figure, a horizontal channel 28 is formed between thelower surface of the first retaining plate 27 a and the horizontalsurface 24 c of the door 24 to communicate with the inclined directedchannel 26 directly. In one preferred embodiment, the horizontal channel28 has a height f of from 1.0 cm to 1.4 cm so as to prevent the firstretaining plate 27 a from hindering or jamming the optical disk 25 whenthe tray 22 moves in and out of the optical disk drive 2.

It is specially noted that even though the inclined directed channel 26disclosed in the first preferred embodiment is combined with the bendedpart 21 a of the upper cover 21 and the double-layered retaining plate27 disclosed in the second preferred embodiment, the bended part 21 a ofthe upper cover 21 and the double-layered retaining plate 27 can beutilized alone to prevent the flying broken disk from damaging thefaceplate 23 of the optical disk drive upon design requirement of theoptical disk drive. Please refer to FIG. 5, a cross-sectional view of anoptical disk drive with a protection design against a broken disk inaccordance with a third preferred embodiment of the present invention isshown. As described above, the optical disk drive 2 mainly comprises thechassis 20, the upper cover 21, the tray 22, the faceplate 23, and thedoor 24. It is worthy to note that instead of utilizing the inclineddirected channel 26 disclosed in the aforementioned first and secondpreferred embodiments, the optical disk drive 2 disclosed in thispreferred embodiment has a bended part 21 a extending downwardvertically from the upper cover 21 and a double-layered retaining plate27 mounted on the chassis 20 so that the first retaining plate 27 a ofthe double-layered retaining plate 27 is located in the space betweenthe bended part 21 a and the faceplate 23 and that the second retainingplate 27 b is located behind the first retaining plate 27 a and thebended part 21 a. As a result, the high strength retaining structure andthe soft structure capable of decreasing the impact force of the brokendisk can be simultaneously provided by mounting the rigid bended part 21a between the soft first retaining plate 27 a and second retaining plate27 b.

Please refer to FIG. 6, which shows the related structure of thedouble-layered retaining plate viewed from the top of the optical diskdrive. The double-layered retaining plate 27 is a frame-shaped structuremounted on the front end of the chassis 20. In addition, the both sidesof the frame-shaped structure of the double-layered retaining plate 27are assembled directly on the both lateral sides of the chassis 20directly. The tray 22 is located under the double-layered retainingplate 27 and it is movable to the outside of the optical disk drive viathe front end of the chassis 20 so as to facilitate the user to put inor take out the optical disk 25. The first retaining plate 27 a and thesecond retaining plate 27 b of the aforementioned double-layeredretaining plate 27 have a long and narrow opening h therebetween. Whenthe aforementioned upper cover 21 is assembled to the chassis 20, thebended part 21 a located on the front end of the upper cover 21 will beinserted exactly into the opening h to form the sectional structure asshown in the FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

The present invention has considerable advantages. First, the inclineddirected channel 26 that extends upward obliquely is formed between thefaceplate 23 and the door 24. Therefore, when the broken disk proceedsalong the gap d between the faceplate 23 and the door 24, it will beguided to go up along the inclined directed channel 26 to thereby avoidhitting the door 24 directly and perpendicularly. As a result, theinclined directed channel 26 is capable of dispersing the impact forcefrom the broken disk and decreasing its kinetic energy so as to retainthe broken disk in the inclined directed channel 26, thereby preventingthe door 24 from deformation or damage and also effectively preventingthe broken disk, which may hurt the user, from piercing through the door24.

Moreover, the present invention also provides the bended part 21 a ofthe upper cover 21 and the double-layered retaining plate 27 behind thefaceplate 23 such that the soft double-layered retaining plate 27 andthe rigid iron bended part 21 a provide simultaneously the high-strengthretaining structure and the soft structure capable of decreasing theimpact force of the broken disk. Accordingly, the faceplate 23 and thedoor 24 can be both protected against broken disk.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth forthe purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiment ofthe invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to thoseskilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended tocover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe invention.

1. An optical disk drive, comprising: a chassis; an upper cover mountedabove the chassis; a tray mounted between the chassis and the uppercover for supporting an optical disk; a faceplate having a firstinclined plane, and mounted on a front end of the upper cover; and adoor mounted on a front end of the tray and having a second inclinedplane with a gap opposite to the first inclined plane for forming aninclined directed channel between the faceplate and the door.
 2. Theoptical disk drive of claim 1, wherein the gap has a value from 1.0 to1.4 cm.
 3. The optical disk drive of claim 1, wherein the faceplatefurther comprises a first vertical surface connected with an upper edgeof the first inclined plane, and the door comprises a second verticalsurface opposite to the first vertical surface and connected with anupper edge of the second inclined plane.
 4. The optical disk drive ofclaim 1, wherein a bended part is formed on the front end of the uppercover, and a space is formed between the bended part and the faceplate.5. The optical disk drive of claim 4, further comprising a firstretaining plate located in the space between the bended part and thefaceplate.
 6. The optical disk drive of claim 5, wherein the doorfurther comprises a horizontal surface connected to a lower edge of thesecond inclined plane, and wherein a horizontal channel is formedbetween a lower surface of the first retaining plate and the horizontalsurface to communicate with the inclined directed channel.
 7. Theoptical disk drive of claim 6, wherein the horizontal channel has aheight from 1.0 cm to 1.4 cm.
 8. The optical disk drive of claim 5,further comprising a second retaining plate located behind the firstretaining plate and the bended part.
 9. The optical disk drive of claim8, wherein the first retaining plate and the second retaining plate areconnected to each other and integrally formed to form a double-layeredretaining structure.
 10. An optical disk drive, comprising: a chassis;an upper cover mounted above the chassis, and having a bended part on afront end thereof; a tray mounted between the chassis and the uppercover for supporting an optical disk; a faceplate mounted on the frontend of the upper cover, wherein the bended part is located behind thefaceplate, and a space is formed between the bended part and thefaceplate; a door mounted on a front end of the tray; and adouble-layered retaining plate having a first retaining plate and asecond retaining plate located respectively on both front and rear sidesof the bended part.
 11. The optical disk drive of claim 10, wherein thefirst retaining plate is located in the space between the bended partand the faceplate.
 12. The optical disk drive of claim 10, wherein thesecond retaining plate is located on the read side of the bended part,and the second retaining plate and the first retaining plate areintegrally formed to connect to each other.